The Power Couple: Juno and Jupiter

October 14, 2016

Space News

Juno, sister and also wife of chief god Jupiter, has reached her husband/brother. Well, not really the goddess but NASA’s spacecraft, Juno, has reached the gas giant after a five year journey through our solar system and is currently in orbit. NASA has a series of short clips with Bill Nye explaining the journey of Juno, why Jupiter is such a fascinating planet and the challenges Juno had to face. Watch ‘Why with Nye’ here.

Juno is the first solar powered spacecraft designed to operate at such a great distance from the sun. To meet this challenge, its solar panels extend outward from Juno’s hexagonal body, giving the spacecraft an overall span of 20 meters.

Jupiter has the harshest radiation of any planet in our solar system – and the strongest magnetic field. So over about a year, Juno is expected to be bombarded with the amount of radiation that’s equivalent of more than 100 million dental x-rays.

Credit: NASA

For more easy short reads about Juno and Jupiter, check out NASA’s tumblr page here.